Ashes of the Phoenix
by Shameful Metaphors
Summary: Ash's decision to compete in the Kanto league once more was for the best, but life continues to be a struggle. The horrors of the Champion's League, his severed friendships, and the deaths of Elite Four Members and evil masterminds alike by an unknown murderer plagues his mind. Even with aura and the Rainbow Wing, can Ash solve the world's problems again?


"Ash!" Pikachu heard Delia yell. The sound was dull, though Pikachu could certainly tell that it her voice was raised. She was likely downstairs, either in the living room or kitchen given how distant she sounded. Slowly, Pikachu opened his eyes. He had himself trapped in Ash's arm. The grip wasn't strangling him, but he found that he could hardly move.

"Wake up, Ash," Delia yelled again. Pikachu didn't feel him budge. A better kickstart was needed from Delia if he was going to get moving. Pikachu stretched his paw to Ash's index finger and gave a small jolt of electricity. He felt Ash jitter from his arms to his legs for a second. Pikachu turned around to face Ash. He looked wide-eyed and sweat from the surprise shock. He opened his mouth but was interrupted.

"Ash!"

Ash turned to the opening of his door, understanding what was going on. "Coming!" Ash shouted back, removing the cover from his bed frantically with Pikachu climbing on his back. Ash turned to Pikachu. "Thanks for not frying me, buddy."

Pikachu looked away, closing his eyes, and rubbing the back of his head. "Pika," he smiled. With that, Ash scrambled down stairs wondering what could be going on, only to find Delia enjoying eggs and toast on the kitchen table. He could see an extra plate for him, too. He grinned.

"Enjoy your breakfast, sweetie," Delia said. "I'm not doing it this again, though. You need fix your sleep schedule."

"What time is it?" Ash asked as he seated himself at the table.

"Almost twelve."

Ash cheeks burned slightly in embarrassment. "Sorry, Mom," he faintly laughed. "It might be because of the bed. Having it for more than a week for more than a week is gift nowadays. I'm used to sleeping on the ground, but my bed feels so good."

Delia thought about how Ash's adventures might've been. Maybe he would rent a room at the Pokemon center for a day when he found a town during his travels during the day, just to leave and camp for a week straight. "I'm not really mad," Delia reassured him. Ash knew that, as he was vacuuming his food. "Now that I think about it, though, you haven't stayed here for this long in a while. You went straight to Kalos only a day or two after your return from Unova."

"Yeah..." Ash trailed off, looking at Pikachu who finished the remains of the food he left for him. That wasn't the most considerate move he's made thinking back on it. "Usually there's a new region for me to travel to start my new journey. There probably is some areas that I haven't explored yet, but I never looked into it."

"Did you ask Professor Oak what options there were?"

Ash shrugged. "He did mention the Alola region."

Delia had to stifle a laugh. Seeing Ash not interested in a region was bizarre sight, but she straightened herself. "Why not there, honey?"

"There's no gym leaders or league. Professor Oak did say it should be a thing sooner or later, but I'm not going there until it does." Ash started to slouch in his chair, easing in to the conversation and touch of of Pikachu back on his shoulder.

"I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure you visited all regions if you're not going there," Delia pointed out. She didn't see much harm in saying it, but it the sentence threw Ash off.

"What!?" Ash shot out of his seat, and Pikachu was startled by the quick movement. His initial reaction was a mix of things. Shock, confusion, and worry, specifically. "You mean I explored almost everything in this world?"

"Thank goodness I have faith in you being a professional trainer," Delia sighed. "Something tells me you didn't study a lot of things at school when you were a kid." She knew he wasn't the brightest at times, but his ignorance at his own world was astonishing. "There is more out there... Sort of. While our regions are large, there's more, Ash. The regions you traveled to, plus Alola, makes up about a third of land in the world, at best. The other parts of land are different, though. They're really far away. The people, if there are any, aren't advanced in technology. That also means they probably aren't as peaceful with Pokemon."

"Why don't we find out if there is people there?" Ash quickly asked. "If they don't have the stuff we do, why don't we give it to them?"

Delia thought for a second to find a satisfying answer for him. "Well, without technology, it's hard to control all the Pokemon. A lot of of wild Pokemon are out there because of that. An area full of pokemon is dangerous. Alola is the most distant from the other regions. They took a while to get everything to settle even if they were small islands. That's why Alola still doesn't have a league while Kanto has had it for years."

"Huh," Ash said to himself, easing up a little. He didn't know how to follow up on that. As cool as it was continue exploring new regions nonstop like he has for the past six years, his mom stopped that real quick. "Well maybe I'll go there someday." The words slipped from his mouth. Pikachu shook his head frantically at the possibility. Ash wasn't entirely serious about it, but he didn't dislike what he said.

Delia rolled her eyes. The fact that he wouldn't go to Alola just because they didn't have league made her seriously doubt he's going to travel to a primal, unruly continent. Besides, even though she may not know everything Ash did, it's impossible he's done anything truly dangerous like that, right? "You should probably get ready," Delia suggested. "It's getting late and I doubt, even with your break, you'd want to take a lazy day. Your pokemon miss you."

"Of course!" Ash grinned and Pikachu smiled and nodded in agreement.

* * *

Ash didn't take long before he was ready. A quick shower and some other hygienic doings were done quickly as he really didn't care at the quality of how he presented himself. He just cared about the fact that it was done. He would likely get dirty quickly, so it's not like it truly mattered. After he made sure he was ready, Ash and Pikachu bolted downstairs and out the door until his mom halted them.

"Ash!" Delia abrupted. They stopped and turn to her on the couch waving around a red envelope. "This looks important. It's from the league's organization."

Ash and Pikachu turned heads to each other, equally confused. Ash never received an envelope in years and never has he received one from the Pokemon League organization. He didn't even have one starting out his journey. It could be spam mail with something worthless, but they the three were intrigued. Ash and Pikachu walked to the couch and took a seat with her. Delia extended the arm with the hand holding it.

"Here," she said. "You open it."

He smiled and obliged. He felt it, trying to find out anything before he actually ripped it. It felt like it was just paper. There wasn't many papers, but there was more than one. Finally, he tore the fold, separating it with ease even if the envelope ripped a bit. Ash didn't care. He pulled the papers out and counted three papers. He looked at each paper one-by-one. Two of them were paperwork, but third paper was a letter.

 _Dear Ash Ketchum,_

 _During our most recent meeting, us champions realized that you have done many great works throughout your journey. You saved the world in each region_ _at least once and possibly more. Your life could have been taken many times_ _during your time as a trainer for the world's sake. Your acts of heroism should not go unnoticed and unappreciated, which is why we are awarding you with the Medal of Honor. We are planning a televised event at Indigo Plateau at July 23 if you do agree in order to recognize your events. As long as you fill out the paperwork given to you, the ceremony will go underway. If you decline, you still be awarded and the medal will be sent to your home. However, we hope to see you there._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Red, Lance, Steven, Wallace,_

 _Cynthia, Alder, and Diantha._

"Wh- What?" Ash breathed. He and Pikachu were the first to finish reading since they had a better understanding of the content. The two quickly switched their attention to each other and the letter back and forth in shock.

"What!?" Delia shreiked as she got the point of the letter. She turned to Ash, not with smiles and excitement, but with fear and anger with bulged eyes and venomous tone. "Ash, I understand that I did not ask about all the adventures you did, but what the hell did you do?"

Ash recoiled back as he never seen this type of rage from his mother. He knew his mom, though. She's furious because she's scared for his well being. There's no way he could exaggerate the truth of what he did. The letter caught him red handed. He sighed. "Well... I've helped control a few legendaries. I also help stop some criminal organizations. Do you want to hear what I did?" He put up a smile seeing if offering himself to be a storyteller could ease the situation. Delia's facial expression stayed constant. It didn't work.

* * *

The last time Ash earned a grounding was when he was eight years old. He got lost in Route 1 during a field trip and stayed the night in a log with some pokemon during a severe thunderstorm. Though that night sparked his passion with pokemon since the Poke helped out when Ash was scared most, what happened afterwords wasn't pleasant. As pleased as Delia was to see him back, his actions had consequences. He was punished with isolation and a lack of electronics. Considering he was kid at that time, that punishment was mean.

His punishment now was cruel _._ The punishment has a similar foundation from his previous punishment, but what he was doing now felt like a multiplied, cranked up version of it. He was without electronics again. This time time, though, Ash was also without Pikachu, someone he didn't realized he would miss so much so quickly even if it wasn't a life-or-death predicament. He didn't feel lonely because he felt alone, he felt lonely because he was without somebody he truly cared for. He never felt that way years ago.

Ash's new punishment didn't have a timetable. He would be freed from his grounding as long as Ash completed the assignment. While his previous punishment made him think about he has done, the assignment forced Ash to _write_ what he has done. Every single incident that could have spelled Ash's own death he had to write down, and he had to think of way to solve the solution without him risking himself being killed.

He chuckled at the reality that a future holder of the Medal of Honor was grounded by his mom listing reasons why saving the world was _wrong_.

Ash was seated at his desk, pushing the button on his retractable pen over and over. Ash heavily groaned, deciding to at least start the list. The first event that came to mind was when he was fending off the group of spearow's on Route 1. While the danger wasn't as grand as other adventures, he was ignorant and mainly defenseless during his first day.

"During first day of my journey, I almost got mauled by spearow, drowned in a river, and eaten by a gyarados," Ash scribbled down. "Things I would change..."

Thinking back to it, the day look like a series of unlucky events that almost didn't end. He overslept, got a disobedient starter, pissed off a flock of spearow unintentionally, almost drowned, annoyed Misty by stealing her bike, got fried with the bike, and almost ended his journey right there. Yet, he wouldn't trade the day for anything else. He gained a loyal companion (even if it took time) and was introduced to Misty. That would've never happened if he woke up on time, or tried to gain Pikachu's trust in Pallet, or stole the bike. "Nothing," Ash snickered as he finished what started to write down.

The next event he thought of was the events that occurred in Shamouti. Being titled as the "chosen one" by Melody was something Ash couldn't help as he was washed ashore by a freak storm and immediately greeted by her. He doesn't remember doing anything immediately stupid. It was just another string of bad events involving Lawrence III and the birds. Nobody was injured in the end and he saved the world.

"While on Shamouti, I entered a war zone with the legendary birds and dealt with a powerful poacher," Ash wrote. "Things I would change: Nothing."

Ash did like the how he was tackling his punishment like a wise-ass, but he knew that it wasn't going to cut it (even if he could write the same thing with a lot of the major crises). He tried to think of times he almost died unnecessarily. The Prism Tower incident at the beginning of Ash's Kalos remained fresh in his mind. He jumped off one of the largest towers just to grab hold of Pikachu. It did show Ash's loyalty to Pikachu, he understood his action was ridiculous. Ash's jump probably made Blaziken Mask and Mega-Blaziken's job even harder that could have prevented a few different ways.

"I jumped off Prism Tower the day I first came to Kalos," Ash said as pressed down with his pen hard. The black ink bled through the paper onto his desk. "Things I would change: Recalled Pikachu with my Pokeball, brought one of my flying types to Kalos, and beat up Team Rocket."

Ash paused as finished the sentence. He really didn't think of that when he wrote it down. It just happened while he wasn't thinking, but Ash wasn't wrong. The Team Rocket Trio were usually harmless but that day they were especially difficult for him. He knew they weren't really bad people, but what they did was wrong. They controlled a powerful Pokemon for a terrorist attack that could have killed people. Ash didn't really what would happen to Garchomp if he didn't break that collar. If he could just defeat their leader, then Ash never has to view the three as people who would do that ever again. Maybe they could be friends if they learn a lesson and avoid jail-time.

 _"Would that be enough?"_ Ash thought. He doubted that three measly examples would work, considering how the letter pointed how he saved the world at least ten times. _"I guess it's worth a shot."_

He stood up from his seat and walked downstairs casually with the paper grasped in his hands. Ash found his mom watching some television interacting with Mr. Mime and Pikachu was on her lap. From what Ash could see, he couldn't tell what Delia felt of his presence once she saw him.

"Can you check my list?" Ash asked near the arm of the couch. "To see if everything's okay?"

"I could do that," Delia deadpanned. She gently picked up Pikachu away from her lap and carried him to the side. Ash walked up to Delia and gave her the paper. She took a quick glance at the paper. "Only three?" the mother frowned.

"Yeah..." Ash trailed off, scratching the back of his head..

"And you wouldn't change a thing from when you encountered the legendary birds fighting?"

"Yeah..."

Silence ensued. There was no way Ash would speak until Delia did. He could detect her annoyance, so he waited. The likely result was him being sent to the his room, but Ash wasn't going to assume. Pikachu climbed up to Ash's shoulder at this time, trying to break the silence without being rude.

Finally, Delia cracked, collapsing back onto the couch. Her arms and legs were spread out taking up as much space as possible as she closed her eyes. "Ash, I just want to know what you did really. It's been six years since you first started your journey and hardly told me what adventures you've done. I'm not really lonely, Ash, but I would really like to know what you did to receive the Medal of Honor. I mean, I'm your mom. Why haven't you told me some of these things?"

Ash blinked. Thinking back, he couldn't really think of a time where his mom asked for something from Ash that didn't concern his well being. She always did so many things for Ash. Even when she lashed out on Ash for occasion, it was for _him._ Every costume she sewed showed her selflessness, sacrificing her time with Ash almost always cheerful and supportive of Ash. The last act of kindess he did for his mom was the Graciedia flowers he sent while in Sinnoh. That was two years ago.

Now Delia was burned out and actually wanted something from Ash. He knew he pushed himself too far.

"Sorry, Mom." Ash said, bowing his head down. "I guess I didn't really talk about my adventures because I didn't want to be distracted to become a Pokemon Master. I still have a long way to go, so I don't want to slow down my pace. I just didn't really think of how you would feel." He looked back up, looking for a reaction. He petted Pikachu who nuzzled into Ash's touch.

Delia didn't change her body position, but she lightly smiled. "You know, I gave you that punishment so that I would know what kind of adventures you went on," she admitted. "I knew that wasn't going to last too long. You're impatient and terrible at writing."

"I haven't done it at all asides from when I needed," Ash chuckled. "Who knows who or where I would be without without pokemon. Without Pikachu."

"Pika!" Pikachu cheered, still snuggling to Ash's hand.

Delia composed herself back to a normal, upright sitting position. "Well, from what you said and what you wrote down from the Lumiose incident, it looks like you learned your lesson," Delia said. "Besides, you can grow by looking back on what you did on occasion. Sometimes the only way you can move forward is by looking back."

"Looking back," Ash quietly said to himself.

"Even if you didn't learn your lesson, we would've had to leave soon, regardless," Delia said.

"Why?"

"Today is the twentieth, Ash," she answered. "There was no way I would make you miss the opportunity to be on national television. I have a feeling the champions did, too, considering how little time were given."

"How considerate," Ash weakly laughed with a cold sweat.

"You should start packing up," Delia said, waving him off. "The plane leaves tomorrow. If you pack quick enough, you could probably spend time with your other Pokemon before."

"Don't you want to hear about my adventures?"

Delia shook her head. "We have the whole plane ride to talk about that, Ash. Pack up and meet your pokemon. We'll go from there."

"Alright!" Ash cheered, raising his fist in the air. Pikachu tightened his grip on Ash as he knew Ash would run back towards his room.

* * *

"I thought I would actually see my pokemon today," Ash grumbled.

"Pika," the electric mouse agreed in an attitude that matched Ash's.

Instead of meeting all of his Pokemon at Professor Oak's lab to tell everybody the good news, he was stuck in getting a few items from a variety store. Ash's late awakening, his punishment, the packing, and the reassurement that he did pack everything to his skeptical mother made the clock tick by to six. The distance from his house to the store was a couple miles away, so Ash arrived at around seven. The lab wasn't near the path to the store, so he was unable to sneak in a quick visit.

"If I had Charizard with me, this could've gone faster," Ash said while pushing a grocery cart into the Pokemon food aisle in the back of the store. Pikachu nodded. Ash picked up two different brands of food for Pikachu, raising a brow. "What kind of food do you want?"

"Pika pika," Pikachu stated, crossing his arms.

"You know ketchup isn't-" Ash started, but was interrupted abruptly. A blaring noise could be heard throughout the store with screams following soon after. He saw smoke above the aisle with a red sparks sometimes popping up. Ash put ditched his grocery items and the two ran to the source of the sound. As they ran, the two saw few people run or scurry with him.

A store window was shattered leaving only a small amount of glass a the edges. To the left of Ash, the fire that caused the smoke blazed on. The smoke spreaded to the entire store, making Ash cough alongside the people around him. If the fire continued, it looked like the flame could spread throughout the entire store, too. He also saw two people on the right of the window which was also nearby the door.

Ash saw the first person when he walked into the store earlier. The employee was a scraggy-haired young adult with a full-fledged beard. The man looked shaky and acted quiet as he frantically collected money from to the other man, a balding middle aged person wearing a tattered Team Rocket outfit.

A houndoom was beside the Team Rocket member. His front paws settled upon the counter and growled to the cashier, looking to attack on his trainer's command. The cashier gave the grunt almost a handful of money. "Is this, ahem, all you have have?" the Team Rocket Member scowled, stuffing the wad of cash down his pocket. The employee nodded as Ash hid behind an aisle. He noticed the majority of people hid in his aisle or the aisle beside of Ash, each stricken with a horrified expression.

"Pikachu," Ash whispered in the mouse's ear. "I don't think he noticed us, ahem, yet. If you do a strong Thunderbolt before they notice us, ahem, it might knock out the two."

"Dammit!" the grunt roared before coughing up some smoke. Ash peeked his head out of the aisle and saw the look the grunt's face. It was odd, as he looked as nervous as the cashier. His frustrations and frantic behavior made it look like the grunt didn't want rob the place. He couldn't think about why in a time like this, though. Ash removed his himself out of sight, again. "Give me your wallet."

"Now, Pikachu," Ash signaled, turning towards the Team Rocket member. Pikachu jumped off, and while in midair, fired a Thunderbolt with all he had. The grunt and Houndoom turned when they saw the yellow light from their peripheral vision. The attack went by too fast for the two properly react. They moved around sporadically for a few seconds until Pikachu landed on the ground and ended his attack.

The Team Rocket duo collapsed onto the ground. Aside from a few jitters from the electrical shock, they didn't move. Pikachu knocked them out cold. The rodent sighed in relief, and quickly went back to Ash's shoulder.

"Thanks, Pikachu," Ash said. Pikachu smiled and accepted his thanks. Ash looked at the cashier, who mouthed 'thank you' towards Ash. While Ash was appreciative of his kindness, taking care of stuffiness of the smoke and the fire became his priority. His eyes were burning and everybody was coughing a fit. "I would really like it if, ahem, somebody had a water Pokemon to take out the fire. The man is knocked out, so if you don't have a water-type Pokemon, leave the store. I can take care of it if, ahem, needed.

The bystanders didn't have any water Pokemon and fled in a hurry while going around the man and his houndoom. Ash sort of expected this. Pallet Town was a small, humble town. The people weren't journeying like he has or Gary, so they owned one or two Pokemon at most, like his mom. By the time all the bystanders were out however, the employee stayed. He had a Pokeball on the side of his belt and threw it out. A wooper appeared.

"Can you extinguish the fire, Wooper?" the cashier asked. Of course, the waterfish Pokemon followed the man's request, and let out stream of water out of Wooper's mouth. He then faced Ash. "I wish I could've taken care of the fire earlier with Wooper around. Hard to do that when you become a target." A tile from the ceiling fell onto the floor, with ash poofing out when it landed. The corner of the area with the fire charred. The cashier sighed. "My boss won't like this."

"You should be fine!" Ash reassured. "I've never seen any burglars in this town and I've lived here for years. You just got unlucky." Now that was a white lie, of course, since Jessie and James have attempted to steal in Pallet before. They're special.

"Wooper, return," the cashier said, returning Wooper to its ball. "Not really, I should've been at least prepared for that."

"Why?" Ash asked.

"Well the recent news that set off a chain of events in other cities from what I saw on my break on my phone."

"What news?"

"You haven't heard?" the cashier asked, a little surprised by his ignorance. "Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, was murdered. The news released it about an hour ago."

 _"What?"_

* * *

 **Okay, I decided to include all author notes down here. From my experience, including them at the bottom is less obnoxious for when I don't to see them.**

 **A small note, I know when using commas in a series, some states are different than others with the rule. That's why it may look wrong to wrong, weird, and noticeable.**

 **Also, pokemon capitalization falls into grey areas to whether what's right and wrong, so I established some rules. Pokemon is lower-cased similar to the use of animals. Proper nouns of pokemon will be capitalized. Ash called Pikachu which is basically a pet's name even it's the same name to species. Like naming a dog... Dog. If a trainer owns a pokemon without its name is known, it will be lower-cased, but if the name of the pokemon is established, theen it will be captialized. I hope this clears up confusion.**

 **Chapters should be around 4,000 to 5,000 words. I'm unaware how many chapters there will be, but everything will be concluded in this story. No sequels. I do have an outline that does have the main events of the plots from beginning to end.**

 **If any of these tags don't interest you, then this story may not interest you: Aura, Amour, Maturing Ash (not really Smart, but there's going to be development), owning of a legendary, use of video game characters (like Diamond or White), and a pinch of** **political. Death will also be used throughout the series. While not tagged, various characters such as Misty, Paul, etc. will appear, but their importantance isn't enough to warrant a tag**

 **This chapter could be considered slow. I'm aware of this, but I wanted properly set tone and foreshadow some themes and what could happen in the plot. Ash will leave Pallet for now by chapter two. I promise ;).**

 **At first, there was this theme I wanted to tackle in this fanfic and I did hint at it in this chapter. However, I remember Cynthia mentioning an unseen Champion's League in Ash and Paul's battle and ideas flooded in. Excited for this, as my last one (which is discontinued) didn't hit these points and had a less interesting story. Follow, favorite, and review as it is great encouragement for me.**


End file.
